The present invention relates to a device for guiding at least one flexible elongate member.
The expression xe2x80x9cflexible elongate memberxe2x80x9d means a member of great length, often supplied on spools and installed by paying it out from a spool.
Examples of a flexible elongate member of this kind are an electrical or similar cable or a tube, for example an instrumentation or fluid transport tube; the term xe2x80x9celectrical cablexe2x80x9d means not only a cable adapted to transport and distribute electrical power but also a cable or a fiber adapted to transmit information electrically, optically or otherwise.
Cables are frequently referred to hereinafter to facilitate the description, but of course anything stated in connection with cables is valid for any kind of flexible elongate member.
The cable drawing operation is generally carried out to install the cable in its place of use.
It is rare for the installed cable to be entirely straight. It has to follow an installation route that often includes bends and/or changes of level.
Cable guide devices for guiding the cable during the cable drawing operation have already been proposed; such guide devices generally include one or more rollers rotating about a shaft disposed transversely to the direction in which the drawn cable moves.
The document FR-A-2 664 441 proposes a device for guiding at least one flexible elongate member such as a cable or the like, adapted to guide said member during a drawing operation carried out to install it, for example, and including a plurality of rollers rotatable about a shaft adapted to be disposed transversely to the direction of movement of the drawn member and disposed so that they define a space adapted to receive said member and whose contour generally transversely to said direction of movement is substantially closed, the shafts of the rollers being carried by a closed but openable two-part support, one part of which is articulated to the other part.
The above kind of guide device can draw the cable in all directions.
An object of the present invention is to propose a guide device of the above type that is simple and easy to produce.
In accordance with the invention a device for guiding at least one flexible elongate member such as a cable or the like, adapted to guide said member during a drawing operation carried out to install it, for example, and including a plurality of rollers rotatable about a shaft adapted to be disposed transversely to the direction of movement of the drawn member and disposed so that they define a space adapted to receive said member and whose contour generally transversely to said direction of movement is substantially closed, the shafts of the rollers being carried by a closed but openable two-part support, one part of which is articulated to the other part, is characterized in that a first part is a flat strip bent to a shape consisting of three butt-jointed U-shaped brackets, two brackets being disposed face to face and each connected to the end of a flange of the remaining bracket, whose web is perpendicular to the parallel webs of said two brackets, and the second part is a flat strip bent to form a bracket similar to the brackets of the first part but in which the ends of the flanges not joined to the web of the U-shaped bracket are extended by two lugs extending toward the outside of the U-shape in a direction parallel to the web of said U-shape.
Each of the brackets of the support preferably receives a roller freely rotatable about a shaft carried by the flanges of each bracket of the support and parallel to its web.
The shafts are advantageously retained axially by, at one end, a head that they have at one end and, at the other end, by deforming their other end to form two stop lugs to prevent axial movement, for example, extending radially beyond the diameter of a hole formed in the corresponding flange of the U-shape and through which the shaft passes.
The shafts associated with the brackets of the first part that face each other are preferably used to fasten together the two parts of the support so that the two lugs of the second part are held pressed against the outside face of the free flanges of said brackets of the first part.
The shafts of the rollers are advantageously in substantially the same plane.
The rollers are preferably all identical and their shafts preferably are disposed along the sides of a square.
The two parts advantageously carry locking means for locking the support in a closed configuration.
The locking means are preferably hook-like; the hook preferably cooperates with an end provided with a head of the shaft of a roller.
The support is advantageously locked elastically in its closed configuration by an elastic part of the support that carries the hook.
The contour of the space adapted to receive at least one elongate member is preferably circular.
The outside peripheral surface of the rollers advantageously has a toroidal portion.
The ends of the rollers are preferably such that there is virtually no gap between the rollers.
The support advantageously includes at least one slot for fixing it to a support member.
The outside peripheral surface of the rollers is preferably of at least two sharply contrasting colors.
To explain the subject matter of the invention better, an embodiment of the invention shown in the accompanying drawings is described next by way of purely illustrative and non-limiting example.